The number kept showing up on my cell phone.

For a couple of weeks, every hour on the hour and sometimes in between, my phone would ring. I would see it was the same 900-number, but when I tried to answer the call no one was on the other end.

I called the number back several times, but every time no one was there to answer. I had no idea what was going on, but I was fed up. I kept calling the number back repeatedly until finally someone answered.

“Who is this,” I said.

“This is the Retribution Center. Who is this?” asked the voice on the other end.

“You keep calling me, shouldn’t you know who I am,” I said.

“Is this Julia Bourque?” asked the woman.

“Yes,” I said.

“Have you been a victim of identity theft?” she asked.

“Not that I know of,” I said. “Do you know something I don’t?”

And just like that our conversation was over.

She didn’t give me an answer, and to this day, I still don’t know who that woman was, how she knew my cell phone number and name and whether or not I have been a victim of identity theft.

No outrageous charges have come up on any of my credit card statements and no money has shown up missing from my bank account, but that episode still lingers in my mind.

Reading that 11,138 people in Illinois alone reported identity theft last year has definitely made me start to think twice about signing up for, let’s say, a credit card to receive a free meal from Arby’s or a “free” T-shirt from the men’s rugby team.

Microsoft News has been publishing several stories in the past few weeks addressing identity theft, and its research claims “much of identity theft still comes down to hands-on mischief-things like ‘dumpster diving,’ in which criminals sift through trash to find a credit-card statement or solicitation that someone didn’t tear up, ‘shoulder surfing,’ where criminals try to spot calling card and personal identification numbers, and, more commonly, mail theft.”

Another MSN story reported 9 percent of the nearly 10 million Americans victimized by identity theft last year were victimized by their parents, who used their children’s Social Security number to create “bogus accounts” that the victims might not know about for years.

In the past, I’ve been pretty trusting with leaving bills needing to be paid in the mailbox for the mailman and trusting my parents with handling most of my personal financial business.

After reading these studies, however, I’ve developed sort of a paranoia. Pretty soon, I’m going to be deemed the “crazy girl” who flips out on the person behind me while walking to class after accusing them of trying to “shoulder surf.” Or I’ll be the woman who doesn’t have enough room for people to sit down in her living room because I’ll keep every bit of mail and piece of paper that contains any personal information because I’m paranoid of “dumpster diving.”

Even worse, this paranoia could develop into a vendetta against my family members because I’ll be constantly questioning their motives behind trying to “help” me with my taxes or any other financial matter.

Though I doubt any of these things should ever really develop into true paranoia, I am definitely going to start thinking twice about signing up for things on the Internet and throwing away credit card statements without shredding them first. The statistics I’ve read have convinced me that identity theft is a serious growing problem.

It’s sad our society is constantly going to have to literally be looking over its shoulders and in its dumpster to protect who they are. People really need to get their own lives.